FORT WORTH, Texas – In one of the more grueling stretches of its schedule, the University of Central Arkansas beach volleyball program battled it out with Cal Poly and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday afternoon at the Fight in the Fort tournament hosted by TCU at the TCU Beach Volleyball Complex.

UCA (2-3) dropped a 5-0 decision to nationally-ranked Cal Poly before falling just short in a 3-2 setback to Southland Conference-foe Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

CAL POLY 5, UCA 0

The scoreboard is deceiving for Despite the fact they were up against the No. 7 ranked team in the entire country, the Bears held their own against one of the top teams on their schedule.

UCA took three sets as a team and forced the Mustangs into some dire situations before ultimately falling to one of the nation's best squads.

KEEPING SCORE
 

• Haley Tippett and Colene Hamilton, the No. 1 combination for the Bears, went toe-to-toe with one of the best duos in the second set. The pair dropped their first point of the season with the 9-21, 19-21 defeat.
• Mackenzie Dear and Aly Brinkley battled to a three-set loss with Cal Poly's Vanessa Roscoe and Brayden Gruenwald. The final tally was 21-19, 15-21, 6-15 in favor of the Mustangs.
• The combo of Jessica Martinez and Kellen Dunn dropped to 1-3 on the season with the 17-21, 17-21 setback to Delaney Peranich and Macy Gordon of Cal Poly.
• The young dynamic duo of Kelsie Sager and Faith Hasness suffered their first defeat of the season with a three-set loss. The final score in the match was 11-21, 21-17, 10-15.
• Elleson Dunagin and Kimmy Schnars dominated the opening set 21-15 before falling 19-21 and 6-15 over the next two frames.
• In an extra match, Kelly Douglas and Kayla Cook fell 12-21, 15-21 to Cal Poly's Livy Lee and Sjea Anderson.

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 3, UCA 2

Looking to rebound from a tough opening game at the Fight in the Fort, the Bears narrowly missed out on win No. 3 on the season in an afternoon matchup with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. 

NOTING MATCH TWO
 

• Tippett and Hamilton returned to their winning ways with a 21-16, 21-19 straight-set victory to earn the final point for UCA. The combo is now 4-1 on the season.
• The Dunagin/Schnars pairing picked up a thrilling 16-21, 21-17, 16-14 win over the Islander No . 5 duo of Brooke Adkisson and Sam Dumity. The Bears combination improved to 3-1 this season.
• Sager and Hasness fell just short 21-13, 15-21, 10-15 in their second contest of the day.
• Dear and Brinkley fell 17-21, 15-21 to TAMCC combo Selina Marolf and Abigail DeVido in their second setback of the evening.
• Martinez and Dunn struggled to get anything going against Lael Ceriani and Emma Caudon, suffering a 19-21, 14-21 defeat.

WHAT'S NEXT
Central Arkansas will look to bounce back tomorrow against No. 20 TCU. The matchup with the Horned Frogs is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start time. Follow UCA Beach Volleyball on Twitter @UCABeachVB or @UCASports.